Theorycraft
The best class to start Zero Company with
Soldier, on a first campaign. It is the only Specialization on the list whose damage is unconditional — Arms Master gives +2 blaster and grenade damage from the first mission with no ranks bought — and Brutal Strike dazes, which removes an enemy turn for the same Action Point that dealt the damage. Scout is stronger if you already know what the rest of the squad is for; Heavy is the safest run with permadeath on.
Nobody has played the retail game
Why the starting question has a different answer
The class tier list ranks the eight fully invested, which is the right question for a squad slot in the middle of a campaign and the wrong one for the choice you make in the character creator. Half of that ranking turns on upgrade ranks — the Assault’s 11 metres, the Scoundrel’s double Vulnerable, the Sharpshooter’s +40% chance to hit — and a starting player has none of them.
So the question here is narrower and more useful: which Specialization is strongest at rank one, with nothing unlocked, an empty Advantage pool, and permadeath on? That is a question the confirmed data can actually answer, because EA published which abilities are passive and unconditional and which are ladders.
This is Hawks’ choice specifically. Hawks is customisable, required in story missions, and the only Operator who cannot permanently die — and the Specialization can be changed later at the Den, so none of this is irreversible.
The recommendation
Four first picks, in order
Each one answers a different kind of first campaign. Every case names what argues against it too.
It is the only class on the list whose strength requires no investment. Arms Master gives +2 blaster and grenade damage from the first mission — unconditional, no ranks, no setup, no resource. Brutal Strike dazes, and a dazed enemy cannot attack, so a single Action Point both deals damage and removes an enemy turn, which is the most forgiving thing a new player can be handed. Melee also counts the movement and the attack as one Action Point unless extra distance is needed, so it is hard to waste a turn with it. Trick starts as a Soldier, so taking it on Hawks does duplicate a role early — but a second reliable damage dealer is exactly what a first campaign is short of.
Against it Rocket Strike, the part everyone wants, spends Advantage from a pool that starts every fight empty and caps at ten. Early on you will rarely fire it.
The best pick in the game and the worst pick in isolation, which is an unusual thing to say about a starting class. It is the only deliberate Advantage generator, and Advantage is what every other class's best ability is priced in — so a Scout makes the other three slots better rather than being better itself. Spotted, applied by damaging a target, removes distance and smoke hit-chance penalties for the whole squad. If you already intend to build around a big spender, this is the strongest opening choice available.
Against it It contributes accuracy and resource rather than damage, and a first campaign that has not yet worked out what to spend the pool on will feel like it is playing a support character with no payoff. Its own Ultimate needs at least 4 Advantage and cannot open a fight.
The safest first campaign on the list. Heavy Armor Training's +2 Defense subtracts flatly from every incoming hit, which against weak enemies can mean taking nothing at all, and Intimidating Posture makes the primary blaster attack taunt whatever it hits — so pulling fire onto the Operator built to survive it costs no separate action. Being downed is what causes an Injury and three Injuries mean permanent death, so a class that reliably decides who gets shot is a class that decides who dies.
Against it Taunting concentrates incoming fire by design. A Heavy that has not yet bought Defense and health is simply the Operator who dies first, so the early ranks are not optional the way another class's are.
The highest ceiling in the roster. Onslaught adds +1 blaster damage per shot fired within a turn and Quick Draw refunds its Action Point on a kill, so clearing weak enemies is free and loads the gun for the priority target. When it works it is the most satisfying turn in the game.
Against it Quick Draw carries a 25% chance-to-hit penalty until its ranks erase it, and a miss loses the Action Point outright — the refund only pays on a kill. That is the exact shape of a class that punishes a player who has not learned the maps yet.
Not first
Four to leave until later, and why
Three of the four arrive on somebody else anyway, which is the cheapest way to try them.
- Scoundrel — the kit is thin until invested, and both the ability and the Ultimate need most of their ranks before the class earns its slot. Kabb Uppercut already arrives as one, which is the better way to see what it does.
- Sharpshooter — Lethal is lost the moment the Operator moves or is displaced, and the developers state outright that line of sight and mission structure limit pure sniper strategies. Luco Bronc starts as one; that is enough long range for a first campaign.
- Assault — its case is 11 metres of movement and ledge kills that depend on map geometry, and none of it exists before the ranks are bought. Jae Mordant starts as an Assault, so you will see it either way.
- Medic — genuinely close to mandatory with permadeath on, and still not the pick for Hawks specifically. Hawks is the one Operator who cannot permanently die, so putting the survival role on the immortal Operator is the least efficient placement of it in the squad.
Worth knowing first
Four facts that change the choice
- Reversible
- Hawks' Specialization can be changed later at the Den, along with species and appearance. This is not a permanent decision.
- Second class
- A second Specialization unlocks around mid-campaign, so the first choice is half of an eventual pair rather than the whole build.
- Already covered
- Trick starts as a Soldier, Jae Mordant as an Assault, Luco Bronc as a Sharpshooter and Kabb Uppercut as a Scoundrel. Picking one of those for Hawks doubles a role you already have.
- Fixed Talent
- Hawks' Fearless Leader — squad-wide assist damage, Defense and chance to hit — persists across every Specialization change, so it is not part of this decision.
What would have to be measured to settle this
The game has not been released. These are open questions we have chosen not to guess at.
- Every ability's Action Point cost. Attack costs are confirmed to vary by weapon and no figure is published, so no class here has been costed against a three-point turn.
- How fast Focus Points arrive. Five of these eight placements turn on whether a class reaches its upgrade ranks early or late, and nobody has published a rate.
- What each difficulty tier changes. The ranking assumes standard difficulty; if higher tiers add enemy Defense rather than health, the Gunslinger and the Scoundrel swap places.
- Enemy statistics of any kind. Flat Defense is the single mechanic these bands are most sensitive to, and no enemy's Defense value has been published.
- Everything past roughly the first third of the campaign. No previewer reached it, so late-game class balance is unobserved rather than assessed.
Related pages
Sources
- Lead Zero Company To Victory on August 27
Electronic Arts · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 6 August 2026
Supports: Operator introductions; 3 Action Points per turn; Advantage caps at 10; the eight Specializations; Bonds in the Personnel Facility; Hawks' species options
- Star Wars Zero Company: How Some of the Greatest Minds in Tactics Games are Pushing the Genre, Again
Xbox Wire · Tier 2 — Developer interview · accessed 6 August 2026
Supports: Greg Foertsch and James Brawley on the eight Specializations, Combat Stim + Gunslinger synergy, Advantage, and Specialization changes on authored characters
- I played 54 hours of Star Wars Zero Company
Dantics · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 5:26–11:55 — an injury is taken only on being reduced to zero health; normal, hard and expert named, plus an Ironman-style toggle; crisis operations; weapon mods slotted freely before missions; a second Specialization after cycle 18; every Bond level granting Focus Points and one of three joint training bonuses; the Sharpshooter's unmissable shot and the Soldier's rocket barrage
- I played Star Wars Zero Company — my honest thoughts
EckhartsLadder · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 3:18–12:36 — no hunker-down action, so a spare AP goes to Overwatch; astromechs carrying three utilities and extra uses of each; Trick able to negate some injuries along an upgrade path; twelve galaxy zones; super battle droids telegraphing a rocket one turn ahead; many of the 150+ planets being text-only
- Is Z-COM our new X-COM? Star Wars Zero Company gameplay deep dive
ChristopherOdd · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 2:13–13:51 — Sweeping Salvo at 4 Advantage with three uses per mission; Hawks granting an ally 1 AP for 3 Advantage; Combat Recon granting 1 Advantage per unit scanned; the Grit Talent's stacking invulnerability; Heavy attacks taunting; the droideka ray shield; the Scout's Spotted status; Defense as flat damage reduction
- Star Wars: Zero Company Hands-on Preview — XClones
Checkpoint Gaming · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 13 August 2026
Supports: Advantage section — the Scout specialisation having several abilities that accumulate Advantage at a rapid pace, and the Scout/Cly pairing; Cly's electrified darts and chained electrocution; the specialisation kit structure of one or two passives, an action and one Advantage ability; the Bond system's choice of one of three shared stat boosts; the randomly selected assist each turn. Published 2026-08-12
- Star Wars Zero Company is a very safe XCOM descendant, but its most interesting parts are found in its Midnight Suns DNA
PC Gamer · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026
Supports: Combat section — a tank-like Operator taunting a group and activating a Retaliation ability, with four enemies in that encounter forced to target it and each of their shots drawing an immediate return shot; astromechs as support units providing extra Action Points, squad-wide buffs and self-healing; pistols being weak in raw damage but firable more often, supporting a crit-focused Gunslinger. Published 2026-08-11
- Star Wars Zero Company: A New Hope for Turn-Based Tactics
Xbox Wire · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026
Supports: Combat and squad sections — Advantage accumulating when a squad member successfully deals damage, and capping at 10; respeccing Hawks from Scoundrel into Gunslinger to exploit a Weapon Mod that applied an accumulating Burn status on every attack; unique-specialisation recruits being unable to respec the same way; an astromech with no basic attack, carrying three different Utility items with two uses each; a Concussion Grenade knocking enemies clean out of the combat space. 15-hour preview build.
- Star Wars Zero Company is full of (excellent) surprises
Skill Up · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 2:09–15:14 — the Gunslinger's core ability refunding its point on a kill; half and full cover; Hawks' two voices sharing one personality; companions able to leave the squad entirely; a closed-doors developer briefing and the studio's Firaxis lineage